SOCIO CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF SMOKING AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AMONG ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS IN ANAMBRA STATE: A STUDY OF NATIONAL UNION OF ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS (NURTW), AWKA
Abstract
This paper examined the socio cultural determinants of smoking and alcohol consumption among road transport workers in Anambra state. It is a cross sectional survey and the participants were drawn from the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Awka Chapter. The questionnaire constituted the instrument for data collection for the study and participants in the study were selected using the simple random sampling technique. The social learning theory and the availability-proneness theory were adopted as the theoretical anchorage for the study. It was found among others that road transport workers in Anambra state drink alcohol to overcome boredom, avoid stress and to make them happy. It was also found in this study that road transport workers were influenced into drinking alcohol because of the availability of alcohol, peer group influence, influence from their families and the desire to cope with economic stress of day to day realities of life. The study also found that smoking makes people to feel good/high and that smoking of marijuana produces an endless calm and unassuming behaviour on them. Finally, it was observed that road transport workers smoke and drink alcohol because it is sweeter when they are taken together and it makes them feel good when they smoke and drink simultaneously. The study therefore recommended among others that commercial drivers should be monitored on the highways to ascertain the level of alcohol in their systems with a view to penalizing those of them who drink and drive. The study also recommended attitudinal change for members of the road transport workers through intensified sensitization with a view to curtailing the penchant for addiction especially while at work.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Akers RL, Krohn MD, Lanza-Kaduce L, Radosevich M. (1979). Social learning and deviant
behavior: A specific test of a general theory. American Sociological Review; 44:636 – 55.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. General Learning Press.
Bobo, J. K. and Husten, C. (2000). Socio cultural Influences on Smoking and Drinking. Alcohol Research and Health 24.
Conrad, K.M.; Flay, B.R.; and Hill, D. (1992). Why children start smoking cigarettes: Predictors of onset. British Journal of Addiction 87(12):1711– 1724.
D’Onofrio, C.N. (1997). Prevention of alcohol use by rural youth. In: Robertson, E.B.; Sloboda,
Z,; Boyd, G.M.; Beatty, L.; and Kozel, N.J., eds. Rural Substance Abuse: State of
Knowledge and Issues, NIDA Research Monograph No.168. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1997. Pp. 250-363.
Douglas, C. (2006). A Sociological Analysis of Alcohol and Marijuana Use and Abuse among Young People in Grenada, Drug Demand Reduction Project 2006.
Eneh, A.U and Stanley, P.C. (2004). Patterns of substance use among secondary school students in Rivers State, Nigeria. Journal of medicine, 13 (1), 100 -109.
Flay, B.R.; Hu, F.B.; and Richardson, J. (1998). Psychosocial predictors of different stages of cigarette smoking among high school students. Preventive Medicine 27:A9–A18.
Gritz, E.R.; Prokhorov, A.V.; Hudmon, K.S.; et al. (1998). Cigarette smoking in a multiethnic population of youth: Methods and baseline findings. Preventive Medicine 27(3):365–384.
Hawkins, J. D. et al. (1997). Exploring the Effects of Age of Alcohol Use Initiation and
Psychosocial Risk Factors on Subsequent Substance Misuse. Journal of Studies on
Alcohol, 58(3): 280-290.
Hawkins, J.D., Arthur, M.W., and Catalano, R.F. 1995. Preventing substance abuse. In Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention: Vol. 19, Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, edited by M. Tonry and D.P. Farrington. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 343–427.
Hibell, B. et al. (2000). The 1999 ESPAD Report: Alcohol and Other Drug Use among Students in 30 European Countries. The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and other Drugs (CAN), The Pompidou Group at the Council of Europe.
HSBC Briefing Series: 2 (No date) Tobacco smoking and cannabis use and alcohol use. HSBC Briefing Series: 2. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey.
Hughes, J. R., Rose, G. L., & Callas, P. W. (2000). Do former smokers respond to nicotine differently from never smokers? A pilot study. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 2, 255–262.
Jellinek, E. M. (1960) The Disease Concept of Alcoholism. New Haven, Conn.: College and University Press.
Johnston, L. et al. (1999). Monitoring the future. Ann Arbor, Michigan Institute for Social Research.
Kann, L., Kinchen, S. A., Williams, B. I., Ross, J. G., Lowry, R., Hill, C.V., et al. (1998). Youth risk behavior surveillance--United States, 1997. MMWR CDC Surveillance Summaries. 47(3):1–89. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9719790#
Lamkin, L. and Houston, T. P. (1998). Nicotine Dependency and Adolescents: Preventing and Treating. Primary Care 25(1): 123-35.
Leon, J., Rendon, D., Garcia, E., Aizpuru, F., Pinto, A., Anitua, C. and Diaz, F (2007).
Association between smoking and alcohol use in the general population: stable and
unstable odds ratios across two years in two different countries, Alcohol and
Alcoholism 42 (3): 252-257. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agm029.
Mittelmark, M.B.; Murray, D.M.; Luepker, R.V.; et al. (1987) Predicting experimentation with cigarettes: The childhood antecedents of smoking study (CASS). American Journal of Public Health 77(2):206–208.
Okoza, J., Aluede, O. Fajoju, S. and Okhiku, I. (2009) Drug abuse among students of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria. European Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 85-92.
Radosevich, Marcia, Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, Ronald L. Akers and Marvin D. Krohn. 1980. “The Sociology of Adolescent Drug and Drinking Behavior: A Review of the State of the Field: Part II.” Deviant Behavior 1: 145-169.
Smart, C. (1977), Women, Crime and Criminology, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
Smith, R. (1995). Editorial: the war on drugs, British Medical Journal, 311 23–30.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (1998). Preliminary
Results from the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. NHSDA Series H-6. DHHS Pub.No. (SMA) 98-3251. Rockville, MD: SAMHSA
Unger, J.B., and Chen, X. (1999). The role of social networks and media receptivity in predicting
age of smoking initiation: A proportional hazards model of risk and protective factors. Addictive Behaviours 24(3):371-381.
US Department of Health and Human Services (1994). Preventing Tobacco use Among Young
People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.